Pages

19/05/2010

Marijuana, the secret weapon

Readers of espionage novels may find some thrills in the recently released Department of War documents on psychological warfare, including the use of hallucinogens (see also LSD experiments gone bad)

"Take the origins of MK-ULTRA, the notorious CIA program that dosed thousands of unwitting participants with hallucinogenic drugs.

Initially funded by the Navy, the project set out to study the effects of brain concussion. Soon after, scientists noted that a blow to the head prompted amnesia, leading to the pursuit of a drug-based technique to “induce brain concussion … without physical trauma.” Shortly thereafter, the project was transferred entirely to the CIA, because it involved “human experiments … not easily justifiable on medical-therapeutic grounds.”

Other programs, described briefly focused on mind control. MK-NAOMI was after “severely incapacitating and lethal materials … [and] gadgetry for their dissemination,” and MK-CHICKWIT was designed to “identify new drug developments in Europe and Asia,” and then “obtain samples.”

Another program, MK-OFTEN, started as a study on dopamine. But the scope was soon expanded to evaluate ibogaine, a hallucinogen, and then several more drugs, in hopes of creating “new pharmacologically active drugs affecting the central nervous system [to] modify men’s behavior.”

And the Navy is reported to have “obtain[ed] heroin and marijuana” in an effort to develop speech-inducing drugs for use on defectors and prisoners of war. The drugs were eventually tested on 14 people: six volunteer research assistants, and eight unwitting Soviet defectors." source

Subscribe by Email

Books I Wrote

Join me on FB

fine print

Blog dedicated to reading and writing and their effects. Includes original content by SpyWriter Jack King, as well as interesting and related snippets from other sources (used in accordance with the Fair Use Policy). All copyrighted material remains the property of copyright holders. Let me know if you find offending content, and I shall consider removing it.